How do you know I'm mad? said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat,"or you wouldn't have come here."
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Heinemann, 1907.
First Rackham edition. Edition de Luxe, number 216 of 1100 copies printed on handmade paper. Large 4to. Publisher's full white buckram, with gilt titles and vignettes. Top edge gilt, others uncut. Pictorial endpapers. Thirteen colour plates mounted onto brown art paper and protected by captioned tissue guards. In addition there are lots of charming line drawings. A very good copy indeed, slight dustiness to the spine and a stain to the upper cover, but very fresh internally.
The story of Alice had a special resonance with Rackham, as he wrote, "My experiences of the book are absolutely delightful... it was read aloud to us (3 about the same age, 11, 10, 9) sat by my father & and at once became a household word... It is possible that my father's appreciation of it helped us children too. It was read with full dramatic effect, the songs sung and so forth".
Certainly Rackham's Alice is beautifully drawn, fresh faced and rosy cheeked, her sense of wonder clearly apparent. Carroll's fantasy world is perfectly suited to Rackham's humour and vivid imagination, making this a most appealing interpretation of Alice.
Stock ID: 46998
£2,750.00
